If it is fair to call these times in the NBA the era of the superteam, in which the collective-bargaining agreement is sidestepped in order to hastily slap together groups of stars, then it is fair to say that most of the teams that qualify have encountered some growing pains early on. Miami was slow out of the gate in 2010, and last year’s Lakers stumbled through the preseason and kept bumbling in the early season. Only the ’07-’08 Celtics looked like a good idea from the beginning.

Now come the Nets, the latest edition of the superteam family, with two members of that Celtics bunch—albeit well-aged—making their Brooklyn debuts, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett joining stars Brook Lopez, Joe Johnson and Deron Williams for the Nets’ opener in Cleveland on Wednesday. And, as we have seen in the past, the initial results were sloppy, as the Nets fell to the Cavs, 98-94.

The overarching issue here was point guard Deron Williams, whose ankle problem that limited him to one preseason game didn’t seem to have gone away as the regular season kicked off. By the time the third quarter ended, Williams had played 21 minutes, with seven points, nine assists, four turnovers and just 2-for-6 shooting to his credit. He didn’t play at all in the fourth quarter, and no matter how much his ankle was hurting in the early part of the game, his absence was notable down the stretch.

The Nets shot just 9-for-25 in the fourth quarter, missing eight straight attempts leading up to the 2-minute mark, which left them five uncomfortable points behind the Cavs. Shaun Livingston is a credible backup, but he isn’t the guy you want on the floor in crunch time, and for a four-minute stretch, the Nets basically went without a point guard at all. Williams is still unfamiliar with his new teammates, and until he is 100 percent healthy and develops some chemistry with this group, the offense for the Nets will be prone to stagnation.

Of course, having a core group of players in their 30s is going to lead to some slow-down offense. All five of the Nets starters are capable post-up options, but they do need to attack the basket more and rely less on midrange jumpers. The Nets took 24 free throws in Wednesday’s loss, to 34 for the Cavs. The Nets were outscored by the Cavaliers in the paint by a relatively narrow 34-30 margin, but consider this: Cleveland attempted 41 shots in the paint to just 29 for Brooklyn.

There is good news for the Nets. The Heat got off to a similarly uninspiring start back in 2010, shooting 36.5 percent from the field and posting only 80 points in an Opening Night loss. They eventually got their footing and won the Eastern Conference.

There is bad news, too, though. Last year’s Lakers fell at home by eight points, and only careened downhill from there, firing coach Mike Brown and bottoming out at 17-25 in late January.

It is impossible to figure which way the Nets will head. They have the talent to do what the Heat accomplished three years ago, and that Miami team was dogged by internal issues all the way through the regular season and into the playoffs. But the specter of last year’s Lakers looms, too.

The Nets will have to get healthy (Andrei Kirilenko sat out on Wednesday), they will have to get head coach Jason Kidd (suspended because of a DUI arrest) back, they will have to develop some chemistry and some fourth-quarter comfort level. The issues that showed themselves in Game 1 in Cleveland are nothing we have not seen before from great teams.

How they address those issues over the next month or so, though, will be worth watching.